The COVID-19 global pandemic brought with it a huge change in everyone’s lives. People have had to work from home, and many have had to put themselves in quarantine. This big change in the everyday lives of people has brought traffic from the streets to the internet. People are spending their days browsing the internet and socializing distantly. This does, however, mean a great deal of rumors about the virus have flooded the internet. People are not sure what to believe when it comes to this potentially lethal virus. Luckily, YouTube has released a safe and easy way to gain authentic information.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) channel on YouTube provides the viewers with authentic information about COVID-19. The information includes frequent updates about the situation in different countries, prevention techniques, potential symptoms, and other general informative videos on the virus.
YouTube has launched this featured hub in 16 countries as of yet and plans on making it available for more countries very soon. “We want everyone to have access to authoritative content during this trying time,” YouTubeInsider tweeted yesterday.
Many social media platforms have had to deal with the spread of false information regarding the Coronavirus. Facebook recently banned misleading advertisements regarding products and other accessories that claim to cure the virus and Twitter and Reddit have allotted specific accounts for authentic and true information. YouTube had also put a demonetization policy on their Coronavirus-related videos but took the policy back, as it was hurting many of their content creators.
The likes of Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube have also all announced a joint venture in committing to the spread of credible, COVID-19-related news and stopping the spread of misinformation in any way they can. This is, however, a tall ask as the internet is an enormous platform and trying to find fake news related to the virus on these sites would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
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